[Illustration: "No other man gets half the flattering attention given
the condemned."]

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OUR FRIEND THE MURDERER.


"No, I don't believe in capital punishment," said the Observer, as he
rose from the barber's chair and adjusted his collar before the glass.
"It's less expensive for the government than to board a man for life,
and it satisfies the popular idea of justice, but I doubt very much
its efficiency in the suppression of crime.

"Take the average murderer, for instance. He seems to look forward
to his execution with happy anticipation. He may have been a hopeless
dyspeptic who killed his wife in an agony of indigestion, following
a repast of hot biscuits and flannel cakes, such as 'mother used to
make,' but as the hour of death approaches, he regains his appetite,
and, just before the solemn moment, partakes of a hearty breakfast.
His whole life may have been a record of flagrant cowardice, yet he
walks steadily to the scaffold and dies 'like a man'; he may have
been illiterate to a degree, yet in the very shadow of the gallows
he writes a statement for publication the depth and power of which
astonishes the world. From the sentence to the finish, the murderer's
life is one bed of roses. Every pretty girl who visits the prison
brings him flowers and sweets, and begs eagerly for his autograph;